How ‘Final Destination 5’ Helped Cheat the Death of a Franchise

Final Destination 5
Warner Bros.

Ten years ago, August 25, 2011, a 20-year-old me sat in the cinema (along with my then-boyfriend, now-husband) and had my nerves shattered for a fifth time (also secured me as a spectacle wearer for life – if you know, you know), via Final Destination 5

While the fourth film in the series was meant to be The Final Destination, director Steven Quale and writer Eric Heisserer, along with New Line Cinema, couldn’t resist bringing their scare/cringe-fest to the masses one more time. I’m sure it was all for the love of the genre and had nothing to do with the huge financial success of FD4. It was also the second in the series to immerse fans into the movie with 3D viewing.

And, yes, we now know Final Destination 5 isn’t going to be the last in the series, as a Final Destination 6 is in the works. 

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Final Destination 5 poster
Warner Bros.

Final Destination 5 acted as a prequel to the rest of the films, with the events of this one leading directly into the first movie. It sticks to the same tried and tested formula – our protagonist Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto) is on a work trip when he has a premonition that the bridge their bus is on is going to collapse, killing everyone except him and his ex-girlfriend Molly (Emma Bell). For some reason, a chunk of Sam’s co-workers don’t tell him to STFU and actually gets off the bus – just before the bridge collapses – WOAH.

The one intriguing difference with this installment, one that changes everything in the FD universe, is when our group of lucky survivors learn, from creepy coroner William Bludworth (Tony Todd), that they can cheat Death by killing someone who was never meant to die on the bridge and thusly, claiming their remaining lifespan. The only caveat: you don’t know how long that person’s lifespan was meant to be. Dun, dun, DUUUUUN.

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What follows is the usual gut-wrenching, nightmare/anxiety fuel, as the idea of cheating Death consumes our group, and they either reach their demise in an OTT fashion or dabble in insanity-infused murder, showing that they’d probably have been better just perishing in the bus crash as fate intended. Don’t give in to peer pressure, kids.

It’s great to see Tony Todd play a larger role in this movie as his eerie coroner character Bludworth, who was absent from the third and fourth movies, and only had a couple of scenes in the second flick. Todd perfectly embodies the Grim Reaper, with his iconic voice evoking dread in even the most uncultured horror fan, and his body language, along with the clever placement of the character, popping up every time someone croaks it, emanating an all-seeing, all-knowing presence.

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While I personally don’t find the group in this one as memorable as my favorites, the first and third movies – Devon Sawa and Seann William Scott in Final Destination, and pretty much the whole gang in Final Destination 3Part 5 definitely includes some deaths that have stayed with me throughout the decade since its release: I’m certainly not built for the bars, but I can’t deny I was on edge during the recent Olympics’ Artistic Gymnastics; I really don’t think I fancy acupuncture now; and I’d rather wear jam-jar bottoms for the rest of my life than so much as Google laser-eye surgery. 

Final Destination 5 just goes to show that if there’s one thing that will never die, it’s the Final Destination franchise. As long as there are genius writers around to write the ridiculous, excessive deaths, Tony Todd to tell our survivors they’re idiots, and a production company to make it happen and keep it cannon, me and my anxiety are here for it. Can Final Destination 6 hurry up and get released, please?


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